Workshop 3

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8

10:00 to 11:50 AM

Ballroom

Presenter: Baruti Kafele

Title: Closing the Attitude Gap: How to fire up your students to strive for success

Description: Based on Principal Kafele’s best selling book, Closing the Attitude Gap: How to Fire Up Your Students to Strive for Success, Principal Kafele asserts that the various gaps in student achievement continue to rank amongst the most important discussions in education today. Equally important for educators is the continued lack of student motivation, undesirable student behaviors and apathy towards achievement across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines. In this high-energy, interactive workshop, Principal Kafele argues that one of the greatest difficulties to closing the various achievement gaps is the overwhelming assumption that achievement is in fact, the problem. He says that the achievement gap is a consequence of the failure to adequately address what he calls, the Attitude Gap (the gap between those students who have the will to strive for academic excellence and those who do not) that continues to persist in American classrooms.

Room 302

Presenter: Jessica Minahan

Title: Reducing Anxiety and Disruptive Behavior in the Classroom

Description: With up to one in four children struggling with anxiety in this country, overwhelmed adults are in need of a new approach as well as an effective and easy-to-implement toolkit of strategies that work.
Through the use of case studies, humorous stories, and examples of common challenging situations, participants will learn easy to implement preventive tools, strategies, and interventions for reducing anxiety, increasing self-regulation, work engagement, and self-monitoring.

Presenter: Allison Leigh Bruhn

Title: Tier II Progress Monitoring for Behavior: Using Data for Decision Making

Description: Using data to make decisions about student responsiveness to intervention is a key feature in all tiers of behavioral support. In this workshop, we will discuss Tier 2 and how Direct Behavior Ratings (DBR), systematic direct observation, and intervention-based measures can be used to monitor progress to Tier 2 interventions. Participants will actively participate through hands-on practice and discussion with data collection and analysis.

Presenter: Judy Elliott

Title: The Self-Assessment of MTSS (SAM): What is it and how does it help?

Description: Quality implementation of MTSS is associated with increased likelihood of instruction and interventions leading to successful student outcomes. It is important for schools to monitor not only student outcomes, but also how assessments, instruction, intervention, and data based problem solving are put into place (i.e. the fidelity with which these elements are implemented.) Successful implementation is influenced by many factors within and around the school system (e.g., professional development, administrativesupport, data systems, staff member perceptions, successful adaptations, etc.) This session will explore the use of the SAM to measure school-level and District level successful implementation of MTSS and the necessary actions and activities to successfully sustain the critical elements of MTSS with fidelity.

Presenter: Steve Korr

Title: Developing a restorative and strengths based approach

Description: In this workshop, participants will understand the importance of connection before content, the social discipline window (a powerful framework for analyzing one’s use of authority) and three immediate practices they can use to increase social capital and build community: affective language, circles and developmental assets. Through activities and thought-provoking discussion, participants will have a deeper appreciation for the value and implementation of a restorative and strengths-based approach.

Presenter: Kaye Randall

Description: Suicide has become the second leading cause of death for teens. Almost 40% of students who attempt suicide make their first attempt in middle or elementary school. According to research, about 1 in 12 students have attempted suicide before their high school graduation. Youth can experience intense feelings of stress from academic, social, familial and environmental pressures. For some teens, suicide may appear to be a solution to their problems and stress.

Suicide is a preventable crisis.

We MUST do more to save our children!

During this research-based session, Kaye Randall, MSW, LISW-CP (co-author of 102 Creative Strategies and Activities in Working with Depressed Children and Adolescents and See My Pain! Creative Strategies & Activities for Helping Young People Who Self-Injure) will provide fresh understandings and innovative approaches that can be used to connect with and help students who are most at risk for suicide. In addition, educators will learn how to reduce the possibility of suicide contagion among students.

Presenter: Colleen Capper| Elise Frattura

Description: In this highly interactive session, Dr. Capper and Dr. Frattura will focus on the ICS Equity steps within ICS Equity Cornerstone 3: Transform Teaching and Learning. Participants will learn the limitations of co-teaching and how to move beyond it to co-planning to co-serve to co-learn. In these teams, participants will learn how to develop identity relevant, rigorous learning experiences for all students.

Room 107

Presenter: Anthony Muhammad

Title: Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division

Description: This presentation will address the issue of conflicting agendas within schools. A high performing school has a very clear purpose; high levels of learning for all students. We will examine the barriers to aligning individual agendas with the organization’s agenda, and what ALL parties must do to develop the synergy necessary to guarantee learning. We will examine the theoretical framework developed by Anthony Muhammad in the book Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division (2017) as the basis for developing a collaborative culture.

Presenter: Marcia Gentry

Description: The current national interest in the art of differentiation is at the same time daunting and exciting. One difficulty exists in a teacher directed, one-method-fits-all approach to differentiation demanded in completely heterogeneous classes. Together with prescribed curricula, must come student-based opportunities. Differentiation offers opportunity for personal growth and freedom to change curriculum and instruction based on individual student interests, strengths, and talents. Just like students, teachers are different, and they require freedom to choose strategies that work in their classrooms. Accordingly, provided in this session are a variety of research-based, easily implemented, student-based suggestions for making changes in curriculum, instruction and assessment to help provide meaningful differentiated learning experiences to students. Additionally, we will review the attributes of student-identified exemplary teachers as an inspiring reminder of the importance of teachers and the effects they have on their students.

Boardroom 3

Presenter: Scott Peters

Description: Gifted education has been criticized from a range of perspectives relating to purpose, equity, and effectiveness. This session will outline contemporary gifted education in contrast to more traditional views with regard to purpose, methods of student selection, integration with other school initiatives, and programming. The Advanced Academic perspective sees gifted education as one part of the Response to Intervention (RtI) framework where the goal is the same for all students: trying to make sure as many students are challenged as often as possible while engaged in public education. Implications will be shared for gifted student identification, program size, program content, general education classroom practices, and more.